IN POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING...the post-conflict settlement planning process. Groups competing over settlement planning or reconstruction decisions may continue the con-flict

WOMENIN POST-CONFLICTSETTLEMENT PLANNING

WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING

First published in Nairobi in 2013 by UN-Habitat.Copyright © United Nations Human Settlements Programme 2013

All rights reservedUnited Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)P. O. Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYATel: 254-020-7623120 (Central Office)www.unhabitat.org

HS Number: HS/012/14E ISBN Number:(Volume) 978-92-1-132603-1

Disclaimer:The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this guide do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the United Nations, or United Nations Member States.

Acknowledgements:Principal author: Emma-Liisa Hannula

Team leader: Dan Lewis

Design and layout: Peter Cheseret/Emma-Liisa Hannula

Editor: Dominic O´Reilly

Contributors: Jean-Christophe Adrian, Cecilia Andersson, Dyfed Aubrey, Filiep Decorte, Alireza Esmaeilzadeh, Asa Jonsson, Ira Lemm, Dan Lewis, Ansa Masaud, Jan Meeuwissen, Srinivasa Popuri, Oumar Sylla, Erik Vittrup

1325 Network Finland has participated in the preparation of this publication through the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland.

Cover picture: People’s process in Myanmar © UN-Habitat

Printing: UNON Publishing Services Section, Nairobi, ISO 14001:2004-certified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... ix

01. INTRODUCTION AND KEY MESSAGES .................................................................................. 1

Purpose of the handbook .......................................................................................................... 1

Structure of the handbook ........................................................................................................ 1

Key messages ........................................................................................................................... 2

02. CONTEXT AND CONDITIONS IN POST-CONFLICT CONTEXT ................................................. 3

Conflicts vs natural disasters .................................................................................................... 3

What is gender? ....................................................................................................................... 4

Context sensitivity ..................................................................................................................... 4

Roles of women in post-conflict planning .................................................................................. 4

Needs of women in post-conflict ............................................................................................... 5

03. TEN KEY PRINCIPLES OF GENDER SENSITIVE POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING ... 7

1. Gender factors should be integrated in postconflict settlement planning ............................... 7

2. Post-conflict settlement planning should increase safety and security of all groups including women, men, girls and boys ..................................................................................................... 9

3. Women’s grasroots organizations should be involved in post-conflict settlement planning ... 11

4. A spatial framework should be used to facilitate improvement of gender-sensitive coordina-tion of post-crisis settlement planning ..................................................................................... 12

5. The planning process should be peoplecentred and include both women and men ............. 13

6. Planning should be about building back better and increasing crisis-resilience, peace and inclusiveness of all groups ....................................................................................................... 14

7. Spatial planning should frame interventions today as first steps towards socially, politically and economically equal neighborhoods and cities .......................................................................... 16

8. Planning should be integrated, linking infrastructure, services, and livelihoods in a way that recognizes both women’s and men’s needs ............................................................................. 16

9. Planning can generate economic recovery and economic growth if possibilities for both gen-ders are addressed equally ...................................................................................................... 17

10. Planning should be monitored and evaluated .................................................................... 18

04. POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING ISSUES RELATED TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND NEEDS ............................................................................................................... 20

Governance and decision-making ........................................................................................... 20

Forced evictions ...................................................................................................................... 21

Displacement and return ......................................................................................................... 21

Housing reconstruction ........................................................................................................... 22

Humanitarian camps ............................................................................................................... 22

Housing, Land And Property (Hlp) Rights ................................................................................. 23

CONTENTS

05. ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION AND SECURING ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES ......... 24Tools For Gender Responsible Post-conflict Settlement Planning .............................................. 27

Assessments ........................................................................................................................... 27

Gender Mainstreamed Information and Data .......................................................................... 29

Street and Household Surveys ................................................................................................. 30

Focus Group Discussions (FGDS) and In-Depth Interviews ........................................................ 30

Women’s Safety Audit Tool ..................................................................................................... 31

Local to Local Dialogue ........................................................................................................... 31

Analysing the Existing City Structures and Community Structures ............................................ 32

Rapid Analysis of Legal and Institutional Capacities and Legal Reform ..................................... 33

Gender Mainstreaming at Different Planning Scales ................................................................ 33

National Reconstruction Plan ................................................................................................... 33

Regional Plan .......................................................................................................................... 34

City-Wide Plans ...................................................................................................................... 34

Sub-Centre Plans .................................................................................................................... 34

Community Planning .............................................................................................................. 35

Targeted Initiatives for Women ................................................................................................ 36

Training of Authorities and Local Planners ............................................................................... 36

06. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 37REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 39APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 42

BOXESBox 1: Conflict VulnerabilityBox 2: Gender-Based ViolenceBox 3: Women in the Local Committees for Conciliation in North KivuBox 4: Gender Mainstreaming in the Reconstruction Efforts of UN-Habitat in AfghanistanBox 5: Anstein’s Ladder of ParticipationBox 6: Long-Term ReconstructionBox 7: Possible Indicators for Monitoring Gender Mainstreaming in Settlement PlanningBox 8: Mitigation and Crisis Preparedness Box 10: Negative Effects of Forced EvictionsBox 9: Gender Mainstreaming in Reconstruction in IraqBox 11: Role of Women in Informal Settlements’ Upgrading in Erbil, IraqBox 12: Mediating and Securing Women’s Land Rights in Eastern DrcBox 13: Post-Conflict Planning ProcessBox 14: Gender Analysis Box 15: Women’s Safety Audit ProcessBox 16: Policy And Legal Framework to Support Women in Post-ConflictBox 17: Community Level Planning

FIGURESFigure 1: Crucial Needs of Women in Post-ConflictFigure 3: Possible Risk Areas for Women’s Safety in Urban SettlementsFigure 4: Possibilities to Enhance Women’s Safety in Urban SettlementsFigure 5: Grassroot Women’s Organizations’s Role in Settlement PlanningFigure 6: Gender Sensitive Post-Conflict Settlement Planning Process

LIST OF ACRONYMSCBO Community-Based OrganizationCEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against WomenDRC Democratic Republic of CongoECOSO Economic and Social Council of the United NationsFGD Focus Group DiscussionGBV Gender-Based ViolenceGenNet Gender Support NetworkHLP Housing, Land and PropertyICCPR The International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsICESCR The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural RightsIDP Internally Displaced PeopleIHL The International Humanitarian LawMDGs The Millennium Development GoalsNGO Non-Governmental OrganizationNSP The National Solidarity Programme in AfghanistanUNCT United Nations Country TeamUN-Habitat The United Nations Human Settlements Programme

Women In Post-ConflICt settlement PlannIngviii

Displaced families find shelter at Don Bosco Orphanage in Goma,

Democratic Republic of Congo, two days after M23 rebels claimed

control of the city, November 2012 © Kate Holt/IRIN

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Conflict is a specific form of human-made di-saster that often leaves behind inequality and long-lasting social, economic, institutional and environmental impacts. Civilian women suffer disproportionally more from conflicts than civil-ian men in the form of specific threats such as gender-based violence. There is often further vic-timization of women in post-conflict situations. However, women are not only victims in conflict and post-conflict situations but have also other roles such as humanitarian aid actors or settle-ment planners.

Settlement planning is a strong tool for pro-moting equality. Building an equal society after a conflict is crucial for mitigating against future conflicts and helps to facilitate peace as well as provide economic growth. Therefore, gender matters should be an integrated part of any planning interventions and not treated as a sep-arate planning exercise. All groups of people, in-cluding women and men with various socio-de-mographic backgrounds, should be involved in decision-making for post-conflict settlement planning. Post-conflict planning often appears neutral from the gender point of view but it usu-ally fails to accommodate the needs and prior-ities of women. This happens due to the often disadvantaged position of women in conflict/post-conflict societies. Thus, gender mainstream-ing in planning should be actively considered.

It is crucial to examine the imbalances that led to the conflict situation before starting the post-conflict settlement planning process. Groups competing over settlement planning or reconstruction decisions may continue the con-flict unless the underlying problems that led to the conflict are solved. Also, new conflicts might emerge from planning processes that fail to in-

clude all groups. Decentralization of governance can boost post-conflict settlement planning/re-construction efforts as decision-making becomes closer to the communities. Decentralization, however, should be connected to national deci-sion-making for large-scale long-lasting impacts. Decentralized post-conflict settlement planning must try to find gender mainstreamed solutions to the specific issues including; displacement; return to habitable housing sites; equal hous-ing reconstruction; housing, land and property rights and environmental matters. The security and safety of women needs to be facilitated in the humanitarian camps; and in the permanent reconstruction of communities.

Post-conflict settlement planning can use simi-lar tools as planning in normal times, adjusted to the specific circumstances. Different kinds of assessments, information and data gathering support the launching of a post-conflict settle-ment planning process. These efforts should be done through gender analysis and by gathering sex-disaggregated data.

Ways to gather information from both genders include street and household surveys; focus group discussions; in-depth interviews; women’s safety audit tool; local-to-local dialogue and an-alysing the existing city structures and commu-nity structures as well as rapid analysis of legal and institutional capacities. Finally, gender mat-ters should be mainstreamed at all scales when drafting and implementing settlement plans. Sometimes, targeted initiatives for women are needed in the context of deep inequalities. Train-ing of authorities and local planners should be facilitated to support gender-sensitive settlement planning.

WOMeN IN POst-CONflICt settleMeNt PlaNNING ix

Women In Post-ConflICt settlement PlannIngx

Women working the fields in Nepal. land related employment is often hardest hit by a conflict affecting especially women's

employment. © Phuong Tran/IRIN

Gender mainstreaming means involving all groups of people in decision-making and recognizing the different needs and priorities of women, men, girls and boys and then finding solutions for them in all the processes and solutions of post-conflict planning

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND KEY MESSAGES PURPOSE OF THE HANDBOOK 1

INTRODUCTION AND KEY MESSAGES

Purpose of the handbookThis handbook is meant for people seeking to place planning inputs within the context of post-conflict work in human settlements. This includes planners, local authorities and human-itarian or development actors. The purpose of the handbook is to highlight the relationship be-tween gender-sensitive post-conflict settlement planning and sustainable development and the long-term peace of communities and nations.

Post-conflict settlement planning is a complex process. This handbook concentrates on wom-en’s empowerment and role in post-conflict settlement planning due to their often disad-vantaged position in post-conflict societies. The handbook, however, stresses that gender mainstreaming should be included as an in-tegrated part of all planning activities and to the overall post-conflict planning process, not

dealt with as a separate planning sector to be considered on the side.

Structure of the handbookThe handbook introduces the context of post-conflict from the point of view of wom-en, and presents important principles and tools for gender-responsible post-conflict settlement planning. The handbook goes through differ-ent areas related to the post-conflict settlement planning process and gives advice on how to in-clude gender perspectives in each of them. The handbook concentrates on the context of devel-oping countries and has to be adjusted to the local context.

01

Photo: Women participate in ongoing construction of

water tunnel in Rusizi, Rwanda 2012

© UN-Habitat/Julius mwelu

Women In Post-ConflICt settlement PlannIng2

Key messagesPost-conflict settlement planning process is a major opportunity to increase women’s empow-erment and participation in decision-making processes. It is a major chance to adapt the set-tlements to reflect the needs of different groups including gender groups. Additionally, post-con-flict settlement planning is a crucial opportuni-ty to increase the safety of settlements which is especially important for women that face more risks in the public environment than men.

Gender mainstreaming means involving all groups of people in decision-making and recog-nizing the different needs and priorities of wom-en, men, girls and boys and then finding solu-tions for them in all the processes and solutions of post-conflict planning. Planning that appears neutral, meaning that it in theory serves all the inhabitants of a community, often fails in prac-tice to accommodate the needs and priorities of women if gender matters are not specifically brought into the mainstream.

Women are still excluded in many societies from decision-making and often need targeted empow-erment. The chaotic context of conflict/ post-con-flict states often exacerbates the discrimination of women, when the state is often highly politicized or weak and the society faces serious obstacles in terms of mistrust and violence between groups as well as destroyed or damaged infrastructure and services, which may seem more important to solve than gender issues.

Additionally, old technocratic planning practices and male dominance of the professions can fur-ther complicate efforts to include gender matters in planning. It is crucial to involve women as hu-man settlements cannot become sustainable and balanced if the needs and priorities of at least half (and often considerably more in post-con-flict situations) of the population are ignored.

Post-conflict settlement planning should be stra-tegic as well as action- and implementation- ori-ented and aim at a significant level of re-planning rather than simply rebuilding the settlements exactly as they were before. Post-conflict settle-

ment planning is a unique opportunity to plan away bottlenecks and make the living environ-ment more suitable and safe for both genders.

Disaster-resilience, sustainability and inclusive-ness can be added or increased by restructuring settlement patterns, placing functions in an in-novative way as well as improving building codes and land-use practices. Settlement planning can increase the safety, security and accessibility of public spaces. Mixed land-use and combining housing with services and livelihoods is especially beneficial for women, who often have to juggle different roles as workers of the private or public sector with domestic work and childcare.

Women and men may have different kind of needs and preferences when it comes to em-ployment and so may require different kind of spatial solutions. Women can also be over rep-resented in specific professions making planning for safe locations of these employment facilities important. Additionally, it is important to create a possibility to combine the different domestic and professional roles of women in the spatial structure of income generation. Connecting the employment opportunities for both women and men with services and housing would facilitate livelihood possibilities for all. Increasing women’s employment options is an effective way of de-veloping the economic growth of the area and decreasing poverty in the whole country.

Considering both men’s and women’s needs and priorities in post-conflict settlement planning is cru-cial in terms of building peace and reducing the risk of a return to conflict. In post-conflict situations, equality should be achieved by developing income generation and decision-making possibilities for men and women and protecting the traditional social networks and cultural heritage of all sides. Women should be included in settlement plan-ning activities as active members, not as pow-erless victims and beneficiaries. Empowerment of women needs to be done by combining the maximum potential of the specific cultural and political context with avoiding putting them in dangerous positions after the withdrawal of the international community.

CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT AND CONDITIONS POST-CONFLICT CONTEXT 3

Conflicts vs natural disasters Specific characteristics in a society such as his-toric hostility or stretched resources increase conflict vulnerability (Box 1). While a natural di-saster may bind people together, at least in the short-term, conflict usually tears societies apart. Conflicts also tend to linger. Communities need to find new ways of dealing with each other in society and at institutional levels. Specific func-tions such as reconciliation, peace-building and re-establishing trust between partners are more complicated in post-conflict than in post-disas-ter. This is why post-conflict planning is harder than post-disaster planning.

In comparison to settlement planning in normal times, post-crisis planning is much faster and there is more to do at once. Also humanitarian actions are in place simultaneously and there are more stakeholders to coordinate with. Howev-

er, post-crisis planning is a major opportunity to build back better and plan away bottlenecks in settlement structures.

In post-conflict situations, the socio-demographic balances change. Widow/female-headed house-holds are usually a major part of society since the majority of soldiers in conflicts are men. The ex-combatants may have problems integrating back to normal life. There is often further victim-ization of women in place, including gender-based violence (Box 2).

CONTEXT AND CONDITIONS IN POST-CONFLICT CONTEXT02

Photo: Women and children displaced during post

election violence in Nairobi, Kenya. 2007

© UN-Habitat/Julius mwelu


What is gender?Gender is an inborn characteristic similar to race or ethnicity. It also refers to the relationship be-tween men and women. This relationship is partly based on the biological differences of the genders but depends as well on culture and is thus highly context-specific. The different gender roles change as societies develop.

Gender should not be addressed as solely a matter for women. It refers equally to men and women, girls and boys but it is usually connected to wom-en’s roles and empowerment because women often still have a disadvantaged social, economic and political position in many societies. However, women have different positions in societies ac-cording to specific characteristics such as individ-ual character, age, level of education, marital sta-tus, caste and socio-economic status. Indigenous women are often more vulnerable than many oth-er women and may need special empowerment.

In many societies laws, social norms and custom-ary practices continue to encourage discrimina-tion of women even though gender equality is recognized as a full part of international human rights. The definition of gender equality recog-nizes that women and men are not the same but that they have the same rights, opportunities and obligations in societies.

Gender balance refers to equal quotas of women and men in decision-making bodies. Achieving gender balance is crucial for developing sustain-able human settlements and economic growth and a foundation for building inclusive, peaceful and democratic communities.

Context sensitivityActing on women’s disadvantaged position in so-cieties is important. It is, however, crucial to know the local cultural and social environment. Even though there can be gender-responsible laws and policies in place, implementing them might be complicated due to traditional or religious practic-es that oppose gender equality. In many contexts, inequalities between genders are deep rooted and so change should not be promoted too aggres-

sively and fast in certain contexts. Compromises should, however, never be made to a degree that violates the human rights of women and girls.

Analyzing the context before starting participa-tory planning processes is crucial. If too much attention is put on women’s involvement in a so-ciety that is not yet sufficiently mature for gender equality, women can be exposed to more stress, physical violence or compromised social status after the departure of the international commu-nity. Thus, women should be involved in partic-ipatory planning processes and decision-making to a maximum level that is feasible in the specific context. Capacity building of the whole commu-nity, including its male population, is of high im-portance for achieving long-term equality.

Roles of women in post-conflict planningThe roles of women and the level of gender equality vary still highly across the world and the cultural contexts. Women are still often referred to solely as passive victims in conflicts/ post-con-flicts even if they have strong roles in different sec-tors of the post-conflict processes - for example as peace-builders, humanitarian aid actors and plan-ners. Women should be involved in post-conflict activities from the peace agreements as priorities for reconstruction are often set then and ignoring gender in reconstruction can build up new social tensions. Men should also be involved in all efforts which aim to increase women’s position in order to avoid further marginalization.

Women are still underrepresented in the planning profession. In certain contexts, working with male authorities or colleagues can be challenging to fe-male professionals due to prejudices. However, fe-male professionals have a better basis for working with female members of communities and under-standing their needs and problems. Local women can act as facilitators of community participation such as carrying out needs surveys in communities. In some contexts women have been well involved in post-conflict interventions. UN-Habitat, for ex-ample, has involved women in various post-conflict processes in North Kivu in DRC (Box 3).

CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT AND CONDITIONS POST-CONFLICT CONTEXT 5

Needs of women in post-conflictWomen and men are equal in all contexts even if this is not always represented in laws and at-titudes but only the basic needs of women and men are similar. It is important to understand and represent the specific needs of women equally in the public and domestic environment. Addi-tionally, needs for safety and protection against violence must be addressed, especially in poor environments where the risks are greater1.

It is important to identify the different needs that women and men when doing assessments that feed into settlement planning, including com-munity structure bottlenecks and possibilities for replanning and restructuring of settlement patterns. Women have for example traditionally the role of caretakers and water bearers in many communities. The lack of services thus affects women more than men.

Women use public space differently and at differ-ent times than men and with different priorities. Women think about safety and security more than men when using public spaces and some-times avoid specific areas due to a risk of harass-ment. General problems of post-conflict, such as lack of appropriate land, affect the genders differently. Landlessness, for example, increases violence against women more than against men while women might not have a righteous base to claim land in the first place.

Other crucial needs of women in post-conflict sit-uations include matters related to gaining more control over their own lives and stability (Figure 1).

The livelihood structures of women in traditional communities are often home-based informal ac-tivities or related to land through agriculture or cattle rearing. Land-related employment is often hardest hit in times of conflict. Specific attention should be addressed to re-establishing and sup-porting home-based and land-related livelihoods in post-conflict situations.

1American Psychological Association, (2012), http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/factsheet-violence.aspx, Accessed 20.10.2012

BOX 1: CONFLICT VULNERABILITY

Conflicts are generated when countries or ethnic/political/religious groups fight over political, economic, resource and/or territorial control. Conflicts may be local, metropolitan, national or regional and they are getting more complicated within the globalizing world and its contemporary problems such as terrorism.

As armed conflicts become more urban in character the effects on civilians and their economy, social structures and settlements increase. Humiliation and land grabbing, both of which are getting more common in times of conflict, add to the complexity of the context. Some indicators to measure conflict vulnerability are:

• Discrimination of women

• Level of crowdedness, high immigrations levels

• Poverty/ inadequate economic means and high employment

• Inequality in decision-making

• High political instability

• Ineffective and unfair governance/high corruption/slow political action/weak institutions

• Stressed resources or high amount of resources in a weak country/community

• Land disputes/landlessness

• Highly competing religious/ethic/cultural/economic interests

• Historic hostility between groups, high violence level


BOX 3: WOMEN IN THE LOCAL COMMITTEES FOR CONCILIATION IN NORTH KIVU

Women have been well involved in various peace building and reconciliation mechanisms in the North Kivu Provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Seven local Committees for Conciliation have been established in North Kivu Province since July 2011, based on the General Peace Accord between the Congolese Government and the Army groups. Women have been highly represented in these committees: in the pilot phase of the programme 40 per cent of the members were women. The committees have been facilitating the resettlement of war returnees in their areas of origin. UN-Habitat has been providing capacity-building activities for land disputes prevention and resolution. The seven Local Committees of Conciliation are currently dealing with community disputes, such as land conflicts with strong contributions from women.

BOX 2: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Gender-based violence has been defined by The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women as physical, mental or sexual violence in domestic/public domains targeted on the basis of gender and includes rape, sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking, forced prostitution and forced marriage.

The chaotic context of post-conflict situations increases violence against women. Local men with power, international humanitarian workers, security forces and police have all been reported to conduct sexual assaults/rape in conflict/post-conflict context. Displacement situations exacerbate risk for gender-based violence as normal family or social networks with traditional protection structures break down. Women may have to leave secure areas to get resources or food in crisis situations. Changed gender roles in a post-conflict society due to crisis may anger men. Gender inequalities, insecurity and poverty in a society exacerbate the risk of violence.

Prevention of gender-based violence lies in changing the attitudes of men towards women and the positions that women have in societies, as well as securing permanent housing, safe settlement patterns, livelihoods and education for both genders. Women should be protected in conflict and post-conflict environments in a way that does not isolate them. Strategies that prevent gender-based violence in the long term should be planned by the community members and incorporated into all settlement planning activities.

Crucial needs of women in post-conflict

Home and land

Services

Decision making power

Livelihoods

SafetyEducation

Source: Emma-Liisa Hannula, UN-Habitat, 2012.

FIGURE 1: CRUCIAL NEEDS OF WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT

CHAPTER 3: TEN KEY PRINCIPLES OF GENDER SENSITIVE POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING 7

Post-conflict settlement planning should be bound to the context of specific physical, eco-nomic, social, cultural, environmental and politi-cal circumstances and take into account women, men, girls and boys. In this chapter some general best practice principles to guide gender sensitive post-conflict settlement panning are presented (Figure 2).

1. Gender factors should be integrated in postconflict settlement planningGender mainstreaming is a globally-accepted strategy defined by The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations to achieve gender equality at all society levels: local, city-wide, re-gional, national and global. Governments are re-quested to use gender mainstreaming in all their laws, programmes, policies, plans and projects.

Settlement planning is an effective tool that determines the locations and qualities of set-tlement functions and how the functions are connected to each other. The settlement pat-terns can be planned to serve the needs of both genders and to increase the safety of both gen-ders which helps to build gender equality. Thus gender mainstreaming in planning is crucial and gender-sensitive planning skills of both female and male planners/authorities working with post-conflict reconstruction should be ensured. Mainstreaming for matters such as race or dis-ability is important but not a substitute for gen-der mainstreaming.

03 TEN KEY PRINCIPLES OF GENDER SENSITIVE POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING

Photo: Invoving women in recostruction planning,

afghanistan © UN-Habitat/Wataru


Photo: Women involved in the reconstruction process in

Myanmar. © UN-Habitat

FIGURE 2: TEN KEY PRINCIPLES OF GENDER SENSITIVE POST-CONFLICT PLANNING.

Gender factors should be integrated

in post-conflict settlement planning

Post-conflict settlement planning

should increase safety and security

of all groups including women,

men, girls andboys

Women’s grassroots organizations

should be involved in post-conflict

settlement planning

A spatial framework should be used to

facilitate improvement of gender-sensitive

coordination of post-crisis settlement

planning

The planning process should be people

centered and include both women and

men Planning should be about building back better and

increasing crisis-resilience, peace and inclusiveness

of all groups

Spatial planning should frame interventions today

as first steps towards socially, politically and

economically equal neighborhoods

and cities

Planning should be integrated, linking

infrastructure, services, and livelihoods in a way

that recognizes both women’s and men’s

needs

Planning can generate economic

recovery and economic growth if addressed equally

Planning should be monitored and evaluated


12

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10


The mandates of most agencies working with post-conflict settlement planning require them to pay attention to gender matters but the con-text of overwhelming tasks and needs might put gender issues low in the list of priorities. Gen-der-sensitive settlement planning is often not effectively supported or implemented by the authorities and the weakened institutions or adequately funded. Gender factors should be considered in each phase of the planning pro-cess - emergency, recovery and reconstruction - during analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation and in all sectors of integrated planning such as housing, infrastruc-ture, services, employment and environment as a cross-cutting matter of all reconstruction efforts, not as a separate tool or sector.

2. Post-conflict settlement planning should increase safety and security of all groups including women, men, girls and boysA variety of groups such as humanitarian actors, army forces and peace-securing groups will be responsible for supporting the affected popula-

tions in the different phases of the post-conflict response. The role of settlement planners comes into the picture in a later phase of a post-conflict response, most commonly during the recovery phase. Settlement planners should promote long-term development patterns with increased secu-rity/safety and create an environment where the human rights of all groups of people are respect-ed. Governmental and local authorities should implement gender-responsible settlement plans.

Violence and fear of violence can restrict women in settlements as they start to avoid certain pub-lic spaces such as parks or subways. It can also change their behaviour, for example by making them feel unable or unwilling to go out after dark or participate fully in economic, social, po-litical and cultural community life. Fear can also lead to long-term consequences such as drop-ping out of school if there are no separate public toilets for girls or if the route to school is unsafe. Settlement planning interventions such as in-creasing visibility and adequate maintenance of public space, infrastructure and services create safety in settlements. Streets and other public

FIGURE 3: POSSIBLE RISK AREAS FOR WOMEN'S SAFETY IN URBAN SETTLEMENTS


Dark corners

Isolated open fields and monofunctional areas such as large parking spaces

Unsafe underpassesNarrow lanes

Isolated, dark and male dominated public spaces are high risk areas for women's safety in urban areas.

Community toilets

Empty market stalls


spaces should be well designed, well lit during night time and gender sensitive in order to in-crease communities’ use of public space, which is directly related to its sense of safety.

Planning can reduce violence and the threat of violence by developing an environment which re-duces opportunities for attacks. Mono-function-al areas such as isolated parking spaces enhance risks. Safety can be increased through density of settlements and mixed settlement patterns which link housing with economic functions and services as distances get smaller and settlements more active.

The existing urban structure can be made denser for example through land readjustment, taking advantage of unused plots and sharing facilities, services and administrative systems and locating them close to residential areas. Dense settlement patterns save women’s time significantly and al-low them to take part in other activities such as education and income generation.

A safety analysis of the routes that women are taking to access work, natural resources and ser-vices helps to support interventions to increase safety and accessibility through planning. Safety analysis should also be carried out on the best locations for activities such as cooking, washing and water points. Having well-planned, well-lit safe areas around basic services is important. The visibility and presence of police, emergency phones and neighbourhood watches should be increased, especially in high-risk areas (Figure 3).

It is beneficial to build separate communal bath-rooms and toilets for women and men and ensure that these places have locks and are in locations that are not isolated or dark. The place-ment of the houses of women and girl-headed households should be considered when drafting community settlement plans. They should not be located in isolated locations but close to employ-ment and utilities (Figure 4).

Single women's houses located close to employment and utilities

Presence of police/neighborhood watchs in high risk areas

Emergency phones located along routes that women take regularly

Well planned, well lit central areas increase women´s safety

Central cooking, washing and water points

FIGURE 4: POSSIBILITIES TO ENHANCE WOMEN'S SAFETY IN URBAN SETTLEMENTS



3. Women’s grasroots organizations should be involved in post-conflict settlement planningThe needs and priorities of women are listened to more when they approach authorities orga-nized as groups, not individuals. Local wom-en’s organizations, both new and old, can help women to organize and mobilize themselves in post-conflict situations and support them to be involved in decision-making over post-conflict settlement planning (Figure 5). However, in sit-uations with deep inequalities then women’s grassroots groups are not always a good option. Alternative structures such as community forums can be used in these contexts to enable the par-ticipation of different groups in settlement plan-ning (Box 4). Grassroots women’s organizations can help to facilitate dialogue between local,

municipal, regional and national governments and women in communities. It is important that women approach authorities as partners not as beneficiaries or victims and have well-structured, up-to-date information about their communities in order to support negotiations. Demonstrating good pilot projects can also help. It can be effi-cient to involve female leaders already active in communities or in elected offices and use large-scale operations that increase credibility.

Long-term funding and training of women in decision-making and dialogue with authorities can support to build the strategic capacity of women’s organizations. This is important as local initiatives of women’s organizations can affect larger political institutions in the long run when targeted effectively.

BOX 4: GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN THE RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS OF UN-HABITAT IN AFGHANISTAN

UN-Habitat has been working in Afghanistan since 1989. The Afghan context is highly complicated from a gender point of view. After the long and lingering conflict there has been a large amount of poor female-headed households. Women have faced major constraints in accessing employment and resources and have often been excluded from peace initiatives, politics and decision-making in reconstruction and settlement planning. Facilitating the return of refugees and internally displaced persons since 2002 has been complicated. Women have faced problems in building sustainable livelihoods and gaining access to land and shelter. Many returned communities have been under constant threat of eviction, affecting women’s and men’s fundamental well-being and security. Women, men and children have suffered from a lack of basic services and infrastructure.

UN-Habitat has established Community Forums in Afghanistan to enable both women and men to participate in community level planning. UN-Habitat helped the Transitional Islamic Government of Afghanistan in designing the National Solidarity Programme (NSP), which supported community-led reconstruction projects in a way that included women and took into account women’s needs. The programme has helped in transforming gender roles in more than 4,700 rural communities of which UN-Habitat worked in 1,071 during 2003-2004. The interventions of UN-Habitat in Afghanistan have given an important space for women to express their priorities and needs.

Some 400 women’s Community Development Councils were developed in 2003 by UN-Habitat, and young women increasingly hold leadership positions in them. These councils have empowered community members to participate in community development projects. UN-Habitat has improved women’s access to shelter and basic services through technical support to community planning and strengthened local governance and training of community and district level practitioners in project planning and management.


The different grassroots women’s organizations should find ways to co-operate with each other as they have better chances of getting their ini-tiatives through as a larger network. Settlement planners and other field practitioners should co-operate with women’s groups when working with different programmes and projects. Wom-en should be supported in accessing information from assessments and provided with different options and viewpoints. Local women should be the ones addressing needs, possibilities for bet-terment, threats and problems in the settlement patterns with the support of professional staff and being seen as equal to men.

4. A spatial framework should be used to facilitate improvement of gender-sensitive coordination of post-crisis settlement planningIt is important to establish well-functioning co-ordination structures linked to a spatial frame-work in post-conflict settings in order to share information, avoid overlapping activities and connect national and international humanitarian and development practitioners and donors with national and local authorities. In post-conflict

situations, co-operation with some governments may be difficult due to hidden political agendas, hostile or ineffective governance or on-going changes in governance structures.

Occasionally, the UN Country Team acts as a leader of settlement planning activities. A steer-ing committee should be built to take care of strategic planning interventions with partners from the government, local authorities, inter-national organizations, NGOs and grassroots organizations. The steering committee should later co-operate with the planning teams doing local work. Settlement planning efforts should be linked with the overall national reconstruction plan and the reconstruction gender action plan of the relevant cluster. An inter-agency gender expert/adviser to the Humanitarian Coordinator should be employed and Gender Support Net-work activated in a cluster.

If there are no existing women’s networks or community organizations with gender main-streaming agendas then the creation of them should be encouraged. Civil society groups and NGOs with connections to local women orga-

Women organized as a group

Grassroot women’s organization

Networking with other grassroot groups

Long-term funding important

Training women in dialogue and decision making

Organized support in planning addressing women’s needs

Facilitating dialogue between local, municipal and national governments and women

FIGURE 5: GRASSROOT WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS'S ROLE IN SETTLEMENT PLANNING



nizations should be included and grassroots organization’s efforts supported to do research and collect data that can input to planning. Part-nerships and co-operation with local elders are important as they often have important local knowledge and major influence in communi-ty decisions. It is important to ensure women’s presence in coordination boards so that different sectors coordinate with each other’s gender is-sues and establish both private and public sector partnerships.

Long-term and flexible funding should be se-cured for gender-sensitive settlement planning activities. Post-conflict planning efforts have to be added to some of the humanitarian clusters in order to ensure funding for planning, especially during the recovery phase of conflict response when most of the planning interventions are done. Donors need to be convinced of the im-portance of long-term funding in crisis response instead of quick fix solutions since planning to make the city sustainable and inclusive does take some time.

5. The planning process should be peoplecentred and include both women and menIt is important that post-conflict community set-tlement planning is participatory to ensure plans that are culturally suitable and reflect the needs of the affected people. It is necessary to take into account the political atmosphere and introduce participatory methods accordingly. Even if the atmosphere would not be positive towards par-ticipatory planning, consultations and interviews can still be used.

Participation efforts must be balanced with reali-ty: when the political regime is being built, efforts should be undertaken to ensure that newly-em-powered people are not left vulnerable after the departure of the international community. Par-ticipation should be facilitated so that it gives as much decision-making power to the communities as possible (Box 5). The community dwellers, in-cluding both women and men, know their own environs and needs better than anyone else.

In post-conflict situations, people should be sup-ported to move back to their previous housing sites and helped in drafting community action plans that support the long-term reconstruction from as early on as possible (Box 6). The plan-ner’s role in the participatory planning process is to coordinate, support communities, visualize possibilities, link community plans to wider-scale plans and investment plans and ensure suitability within the overall economic, organizational and political context and acceptance within the local authority structures.

Women are often excluded from participation in male-dominated decision-making forums or do not want to participate due to the threat of gender-based violence. Women can contribute to the different activities of risk reduction and recovery policies, plans and programmes and provide specific knowledge, perspectives, experi-ences and solutions that men would not possibly think of. Authorities, humanitarian actors plus women’s networks and organizations can help in strengthening the position of women’s participa-tion in post-conflict planning.

The gradual change in the overall attitudes of the whole community can be started with influ-encing the men who show positive attitudes to-wards women’s participation. In some traditional communities men can control women’s activities and this restricts openness. To involve all women it might be useful to use small groups, separate meetings for men and women and use storytell-ing to create a space where everybody feels free to engage in the discourse.

It is also important to have female practitioners in the field as, in many cultures, women are either not allowed to meet strange men or do not feel comfortable in expressing their views to men. There should be a special effort made to sched-ule meetings at times and locations when and where it is possible for both genders to partici-pate. The language barriers and illiteracy among women in many traditional communities should be taken into account by having staff members with local language skills.


6. Planning should be about building back better and increasing crisis-resilience, peace and inclusiveness of all groupsPost-conflict settlement planning does not have to mean that settlements are rebuilt exactly as they were. Reconstruction can be a unique opportunity to direct the development patterns and way of ur-ban growth to make the settlements more func-tional, safe, inclusive, balanced and sustainable. Efforts of “building back better” should however be always be balanced with not keeping people too long times in temporary shelters but allowing them to move on with their lives.

Societal well-being, economic growth and diversity can be added and pre-conflict urbanization patterns of unsustainable nature such as dependency on pri-vate cars and segregated urban activity zones can be replanned and improved. Crisis resilience can be de-veloped by avoiding planning on high-risk land; us-ing hazard-resistant building codes for buildings and infrastructure plus planning to solve old city planning problems and addressing the needs of different gen-ders, income groups and ethnic groups. Post-conflict is a time when there are major alterations in social dynamics and values as well as traditional gender

roles and this can be used to implement plans that promote gender equality.

Gender-responsible planning seems to be best informed at the local level and when addressing matters such as mixed land-use, spaces for employ-ment, recreation and childcare, pedestrian access (as women usually walk more in cities than men), semi-public spaces around housing clusters provid-ing space for gathering and playing with children as well as lighting and surveillance for safety. Ac-cessibility by foot and with children and usability of community areas can be ensured through integrat-ing local knowledge into planning.

Women’s centres, where they can have social and cultural meetings and get information as well as support related to discrimination, gender-based violence and economic opportunities, should be assured and funding found for maintaining activ-ities in these facilities. Building codes should enable small-scale and home-based businesses in order to increase employment possibilities for women.

Photo: Women have been actively involved in the

reconstruction in Myanmar. © UN-Habitat


BOX 5: ARNSTEIN’S LADDER OF PARTICIPATION

Too often the term ‘citizen participation’ is used without providing people any real distribution of power. In 1969, Susan Arnstein proposed a ladder of citizen participation with eight steps, an idea which is still relevant today. In the context of post-conflict planning where there are political (often hidden) agendas and sensitive atmosphere between groups, it is crucial to understand the motives of power-holders and include people in genuine citizen participation.

Different levels of participation include:

Non-participation is the way of power-holders to claim inclusion of people without any real objective of enabling citizen participation.

1. Manipulation: people are placed in forums such as neighborhood advisory committees to “prove people’s involvement in a programme” without any real power to influence.

2. A. Therapy: participation is transferred to group therapy, taking the focus away from important matters concerning community planning.

B. Tokenism: Allows people to get information and express their view. However, there is no guarantee that the voice of people will be considered in the plans.

3. Informing: Information sharing on rights, responsibilities and options is a crucial stage of participatory planning but it should not be limited to informing citizens. Instead, it should be used as a channel of interaction and negotiation in an early planning stage when people still have the possibility to influence.

4. Consultation: Consultation, such as through surveys, neighborhood meetings and public hearings, is crucial for planning but must be combined with other forms of participation to ensure that the information gathered truly reflects the needs and priorities of people and is used in the decision-making.

5. A. Placation: People are included in settlement planning by having representatives on planning committees. Positive results might be achieved if there are adequate technical assistance and community coherence to press priorities. However, the final right to decision-making over plans remains with the authorities.

B. Citizen power: People are able to negotiate with authorities and have real power over decision-making related to planning.

6. Partnership: Power is distributed between power-holders and communities by negotiation through structures such as joint policy boards and planning committees. Power structures inside the community must be transparent/well-functioning and communities supported with economic means to pay for leaders and own technicians, lawyers, and community organizers.

7. Delegated power: powerholders need to negotiate with communities, not the other way around. Sometimes in hostile environments parallel community groups can be formed with veto rights and negotiation between the groups facilitated.

8. Citizen control: Citizens have the final decision-making power over planning not the authorities.

Source: Modified from Arnstein S. (1969), A Ladder of Citizen Participation, JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4


BOX 6: LONG-TERM RECONSTRUCTION

The international humanitarian response in post-conflict is usually short-term and a quick fix. People should always be encouraged to return to their former housing sites as soon as possible if the sites are declared safe. If new temporary settlements/humanitarian camps are constructed, the locations should always be planned for the long-term even if intended for the short-term, as temporary settlements often become permanent. This was the case, for example, with long-term Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.

7. Spatial planning should frame interventions today as first steps towards socially, politically and economically equal neighborhoods and citiesLong-term culturally-appropriate and sustainable reconstruction, where both women’s and men’s needs are recognized from as early as possible, is preferable to transitional settlements/ camps. Long-term links between initial post-conflict plan-ning actions and sustainable settlements should be made, as decisions taken in the early phases have crucial consequences for future settlements and gender balance in a community/nation. The need for moving straight into reconstruction has to be balanced with economically, socially and en-vironmentally sustainable settlement planning. It is important that the local and international staff is educated in local norms and gender roles, vul-nerabilities and capacities. When replanning set-tlements it is good to look at similar crises that have happened before and investigate how gen-der matters were dealt with then.

Settlement planning can help to solve social is-sues by linking political matters to physical spatial conditions and creating urban environments that provide economic and social opportunities and access to housing, infrastructure and services to all groups of people. The other side of the coin is that planning can be used by political and ethnic groups to decrease other groups’ possibilities and so avoiding segregation and spatial discrimination is of high importance. Settlement planning should be dealt with democratically with leaders and community members from all groups concerned.

8. Planning should be integrated, linking infrastructure, services, and livelihoods in a way that recognizes both women’s and men’s needsUrban patterns affect the productivity, quality of life and development of an area. It is import-ant to use integrated and gender-sensitive envi-ronmental, economic and physical planning in post-conflict areas to ensure sustainable urban patterns. Planning should be culturally appropri-ate and climatically suitable. Livelihoods, services, infrastructure and settlements should be linked through settlement planning at all of the differ-ent planning scales: local, sub-centre, citywide, regional and national. The different planning scales should be linked together. It is important to ensure that the local low-income communities benefit from the infrastructure projects.

In post-conflict areas, women’s access to services is often decreased while needs increase. Hospi-tals, health clinics, schools, and food markets are important services that need to recover fast. Women have a traditional role of being more re-sponsible for domestic work, water, resources, elderly and childcare and this often makes them more dependent on basic service provision, espe-cially water and sanitation. Women should not only have adequate access to services but also have a role in management of public services.

Zoning for functions is particularly unfavourable for women, who generally have more complex travel patterns due to their often dual role as the one responsible for domestic and child care du-ties as well as being workers in the public/private


sector meaning trips between services, residen-tial and employment activities.

Decentralization and location of services such as banks, shops, markets, childcare and schools to-gether with employment opportunities and resi-dential areas should be planned.

Women generally use public transportation more than men but the schedules are still usually made according to the mainstream working man. Inad-equate public transport also puts women at risk of violence if they have to walk long distances to access services. It is important to understand the different use patterns of public transportation of city dwellers and connect transportation options with employment and supportive social infrastruc-ture such as safe waiting areas and public toilets.

Promoting decreased use of cars must be accom-panied by increasing safety, visibility and light-ning of cycling paths; and providing adequate schedules and volumes of public transportation that meets the needs of the users.

9. Planning can generate economic recovery and economic growth if possibilities for both genders are addressed equallyProductive economic activities support peace and security efforts so sustainable settlement planning needs thus to be connected with sus-tainable and inclusive economy. When planning for sustainable long-term economic recovery and growth it is important to understand the root causes of poverty and its possible links to the conflict. It is also important to understand the pre-conflict economic structures and the bottle-necks in these structures.

Settlement planning at different planning scales with appropriate well-accessed spaces and in-frastructure for economic activity can support economic growth, job creation and livelihoods. The national government cannot provide all the jobs, hence it is important to think about local public and private actors and decentralization strategies.

Women sell onions at a roadside market in Yangon Myanmar. © Jason Gutierrez/IRIN.


In post-conflict situations there can be large amounts of returnees to the affected areas who are competing over scarce employment oppor-tunities, making it especially hard for women to secure livelihoods. Quotas in the distribution of jobs for both genders can be used to increase women’s access to employment which would otherwise be far less than that of men. Even if women would be well represented in econom-ic activities they are not necessarily always well represented in the more profitable employment sectors. Strategies to include women in various sectors of employment can be thought of in post-conflict situations.

Post-conflict settlement planning should take advantage of the fact that many of the fastest growing world economies over the past 50 years have a history of post-conflict in which wom-en’s participation in income generation was in-creased2. The changed gender roles of post-con-flict can be used to modernize employment structures but must not be facilitated through reducing men’s opportunities.

It is important to carry out a gender-responsi-ble analysis identifying the main livelihoods and their long-term growth possibilities in the area in post-conflict; the different new income-gen-eration possibilities and their access links to each other and to the supporting infrastructure and how the area is connected to the region and international markets before starting to draft a spatial plan supporting the economic growth of an area. The economic strategies of the most vul-nerable should be addressed in spatial planning. Urban sprawl and growth of peri-urban areas make accessing employment in the city centre difficult. Similarly, office complexes outside town are unpractical if adequate public transport is not in place.

2 United Nations (2011), Secretary-General’s 2011 report on women, peace and security

10. Planning should be monitored and evaluatedDuring the post-conflict planning process, the priorities of communities change constantly and this should be recognized through assessments and monitoring of on-going reconstruction ac-tivities. Various indicators can be used to support monitoring (Box 7). Women’s organizations can help in the evaluation by conducting field visits and data gathering. The information gained from evaluations can be used in training communities and professionals, as a proof of implementation for donors and as examples to illustrate the im-portance of gender mainstreaming in settlement planning.

Efforts should be made to monitor and evaluate planning projects even if the post-conflict con-text makes monitoring and evaluation difficult due to the pressure for implementation and problems of accessing data. It must be noted that there are unintended impacts, secondary impacts and long-term impacts in every project and that they should be monitored separately with distinct timeframes.


BOX 7: POSSIBLE INDICATORS FOR MONITORING GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN SETTLEMENT PLANNING

• Number of policies, programmes and projects which succeeded in decreasing gender inequalities

• Number of implemented reconstruction plans with a gender perspective that include women’s needs and priorities

• Number of implemented reconstruction plans that increased safety/security

• Number of on-the-job training sessions where gender was mainstreamed

• Number of new/strengthened women networks and processes that increase women’s possibilities to participate in decision-making

• Number of risk-reduction outcomes facilitated through gender mainstreaming

• Number of upwards or downwards trends in economic and social conditions for women after the reconstruction

• Number of legal reforms/policy changes or strengthened existing laws/policies that increase women’s participation and position in settlement planning

• Number of new and strengthened women’s grassroots organizations

• Number of women involved in household surveys

• Number of women involved in focus group discussions

• Number of women involved in in-depth interviews

• Number of women’s safety audit tool exercises done

• Number of local to local dialogues facilitated through gender mainstreaming

• Number of targeted settlement planning initiatives for enhancing women’s position in communities facilitated

• Number of women trained and included in community housing reconstruction

• Percentage increase in women’s participation to community planning activities

• Percentage increase in access of women to decision-making during planning

• Percentage increase in use of sex-disaggregated data

• Percentage decrease in incidents of gender-based violence after the implementation of community plans

• Percentage increase in women’s formal employment

• Percentage increase in the sense of security of women after the implementation of community plans

• Percentage of implemented alternative community plans that prevented a forced eviction


Decreasing vulnerability and risks prior to con-flicts should be the first step of any settlement planning (Box 8). Post-conflict planning is com-plex and there are many issues to be dealt with. When it comes to making women’s position bet-ter in or by settlement planning, it is important to identify the most common problems and take them into account.

Governance and decision-makingIn post-conflict areas it is crucial to examine the problems and imbalances that led to the conflict and the position of women in these frameworks. If those issues remain unaddressed a new conflict might emerge during settlement planning. There might also be (hidden) political agendas, hostile/ineffective governance or changes in governance structures that make decision-making related to settlement planning complicated. In this environ-ment the inclusion of women (especially poor

04 POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING ISSUES RELATED TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND NEEDS

ones) in decision-making structures may be hard but it is crucial as the way in which democratic governance structures are being rebuilt will influ-ence the future equity in a society.

In almost all societies in the world men are domi-nating decision-making forums. This is non-justi-fiable, especially in post-conflict situations where considerably more than half of the population is female. Women’s participation and leadership in national, regional, municipal and local gov-ernance should be promoted by laws, policies, programmes and quotas.

Photo: Community consultation in Kanyama, Zambia.

2011 © UN-Habitat/Alexander Chileshe

CHAPTER 4: POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING ISSUES RELATED TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND NEEDS 21

Decentralization of governance can boost post-conflict settlement planning reconstruction efforts as decision-making becomes closer to the communities, which can speed up implementa-tion of the plans. Promoting gender sensitiveness in planning is more likely at local authority level. Decentralization strategies must, however, con-nect to national decision-making for large-scale long-lasting impacts.

Community-based initiatives should be linked with the national and international governance for increasing the chances of creating real long-term change in the position of women in soci-eties. For example, UN-Habitat’s programme in Iraq has worked both with gender-sensitive com-munity interventions and with influencing the governmental policies to include principles of gender equality (Box 9.)

Forced evictionsDuring forced evictions, people are removed from their houses or land by force. Even though the practice of eviction without consultation or ad-equate alternatives and compensation is “illegal in terms of international law”3, ”a gross violation towards human rights”4 and often ”unlawful or unconstitutional under domestic law”, states are usually directly or indirectly responsible for forced evictions5. Political conflict is often a reason for forced evictions. Post-conflict is a risky period for poor people living in informal settlements as they often face forced evictions in unstable times.

However, forced evictions happen all over the world even in times of peace and they are often justified by public good or development purposes, tenure insecurity and infrastructure projects. Forced evictions impose the evicted people to many neg-ative effects (Box 10). Forced evictions cannot be a long term strategy to reduce informality in the city centres as the poor often return to their former living areas for employment and services.

3. Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, UN-Habitat (2007), Forced Evictions-Towards solutions? Second report of the Advisory Group on Forced evictions to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat

4. UN Commission on Human Rights, Resolution 1993/77, para 1. 5 Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, UN-Habitat (2007), Forced

Evictions-Towards solutions? Second report of the Advisory Group on Forced evictions to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Forced evictions should be opposed by influenc-ing the attitudes of governments, supporting indi-vidual and community resistance and using legal interventions. Settlement planning can help in opposing forced evictions by creating alternative development patterns based on innovative tools such as community-based land readjustment or land swaps, where private developers provide for-mal housing for informal households when some of the land can be used for other income-generat-ing purposes without evicting inhabitants.

Displacement and returnConflicts often generate large-scale displacement as people move inside urban areas, to other cities and from rural areas to urban areas or vice versa. Internal displacement is complicated as such peo-ple do not have the same legal status as refugees and the threat of gender-based violence towards women increases when communities are mobile and family/community structures with their tradi-tional protection systems break up.

In post-crisis situations, focus should be put on safe return to habitable housing sites as soon as possi-ble to avoid unnecessary suffering of people, pro-longing the emergency phase and fostering the risk of temporary displacement becoming permanent.

It is important to assess how to settle people in the same neighbourhood after a conflict. Local peace-building and community-level mitigation by community councils with people from all sides can be used. Women should be included as active partners in these efforts. Permanent resettlement should only take place if the pre-conflict living environment has been irreparably destroyed or is unsafe, or if a resettlement in another (more suitable) area can take place in agreement with the population. If relocation is unavoidable, sites located as near as possible to the old living envi-ronment and primary livelihoods of women and men of a specific community should be sought.

The protection of existing social and livelihood networks is especially important for the most vulnerable, including poor, disabled, and indig-enous women. The sites selected for relocation should adhere to human rights on adequate


housing and standards of living; avoid isolation and be linked to infrastructure and inclusive/sus-tainable settlement planning.

Housing reconstructionWomen may need more privacy than men in housing design and would appreciate specific functions such as having cooking facilities and children’s playing areas close to each other. Ste-reotypic assumptions of all households being male-headed and nuclear affect housing design, yet housing options should be more varied, in-cluding single apartments and shared apartments.

Housing reconstruction should be communi-ty- led and participatory. Women’s participation can be supported by community shelter com-mittees or housing facilitation units (Box 11). Disaster-resilient, green and sustainable hous-ing reconstruction techniques can be taught to women and men through on-the-job training in a way that is in line with the local culture and practices. If reconstruction work is paid, women should receive the same payment as men. During reconstruction efforts women and men should be supported in gaining knowledge, helping with construction and receiving equal access to resources and materials. Women should be pro-tected against the forced exchange of sex for construction activities and against sexual assaults from men helping them in reconstruction.

Humanitarian campsIn the immediate aftermath of a crisis when peo-ple are displaced they should be encouraged to stay near to their initial housing sites if this is safe. Staying close to the old settlements is im-portant for sustaining family and community life and speeding up the reconstruction process of permanent structures and also for safety as risks, especially against women, increase during mobili-ty when communities are broken up. Early perma-nent reconstruction is preferable over humanitar-ian camps as internal displacement is harmful for individual wellbeing, social networks and income generation and can lead to social conflict.

If there is no alternative to establishing humanitar-ian camps, then they should be carefully planned,

coordinated and managed. When planning hu-manitarian camps it is important to remember that female and male IDPs/refugees have different needs and priorities and experience space differ-ently. Women make up the majority of all refu-gees/IDPs in the world and their privacy and safety should be assured: camp planning should meet humanitarian principles and ethical standards. Sphere standards6 should be used, although they can have shortcomings when it comes to limited urban space and the potential that camps may end up remaining in the long term. Community practices, culture, social processes as well as gen-der roles and risks should be analysed before put-ting people in camps.

Overcrowded density, multi-household dwellings and a mix of communities enhance the risks of violence. Women and unaccompanied children should never be located in shelters with unfamiliar men. Material for making division walls between shelters and locks for doors should be provided. Entrances to shelters should be planned towards open public spaces in order to avoid isolated areas where women can be attacked.

There should be a plan of the camp structure in order to consider carefully the spatial layout and the location of specific services, recreation and income generation for both genders before con-structing the camp; to provide information for the camp management/ security actors about where specific groups are or will be located in order to manage protection efforts of certain groups; deliver resources in a fair manner; and to help make changes in settlement patterns ac-cording to concerns and needs of people.

Community structures should be transferred to the camps to the greatest extent possible as arti-ficially-constructed communities lack social coher-ence and protection structures against exploita-tion. The shelters of sole women should be placed in the centre of the camps to avoid isolation and risk of abuse. Camps should not be located on

6 The Sphere Project (2011), Sphere handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum standards in Humanitarian Response, http://www.spherehandbook.org/, Accessed 10.11.2011

CHAPTER 4: POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING ISSUES RELATED TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND NEEDS 23

areas vulnerable to natural hazards and not too close to national borders so as to avoid violence.

Housing, Land And Property (HLP) RightsAfter a conflict, there are often lots of compet-ing interests regarding land and people who have lived on a site for years may be refused the right to reconstruct due to illegality of occupation. Many communities organize their land rights through ethnic/tribal lines and commonly agreed informal/oral contracts. After a crisis, as the normal balance of a society is disturbed these informal practices can create competing claims and new secondary con-flicts preventing sustainable reconstruction efforts. Governments can use the instability of post-conflict situations to grab land for development/economic purposes and widows and orphans may face land grabbing by the dead husband’s relatives.

It is important to ensure that all returnees from displacement have access to housing, land and property and are provided with rights to these regardless their side of the conflict, gender or other characteristics. Access to these resources can encourage groups to return to their places of origin. Women have often more obstacles to secure land in post-conflict contexts than men and might need targeted support (Box 12).

Lack of housing, land and property rights can be harmful to the living conditions of women and children and prevent women seeking help in cas-es of domestic violence. Even though housing is a human right protected by international law and Pinheiro Principles7, the rights of female-headed households are often still not protected by for-mal, customary and other national laws and the rights of women in shared households are not recognized. The inequalities in housing, land and property rights come up in ownership of entitle-ments, inheritance practices and access to hous-ing finance. Equal rights for women and men in these areas should be fostered in post-conflict situations through land management and land records and security of tenure for both genders.

7 Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (No date), The Pinheiro Prin-ciples, http://2001-2009.state.gov/ documents/organization/99774.pdf

Community-level customary law-based hous-ing, land and property mechanisms can be used to speed up management of land records and land-tenure issues. Community members’ knowledge of other community members’ hous-ing sites prior to the crisis can be an efficient tool.

It is important to protect women against exclu-sion when using mechanisms based on customary law. In some countries, national law can prevent women’s land inheritance rights or land laws may be overlapping and confuse the situation. Careful analysis of the context should always be done be-fore starting any measures. Existing rights systems should be used but in the long-term, reviews of legal frameworks can be considered.

In conflict and post-conflict situations, fe-male-headed households increase (typically 20-25 per cent of the households are women-head-ed in post-conflict situations).8 Women-headed households often have problems in accessing housing because of lower income levels or ir-regular employment. Where the patrilineal in-heritance system is used, daughters inherit their father’s land only if there are no sons in the fam-ily. In the virilocal residence system girls do not inherit their father’s land but live on the property of the husband and his clan, becoming vulnera-ble in the case of widowhood. Polygamy compli-cates the situation further.

It is crucial to provide joint certifications of tenure security to husbands and wives. Women should be informed of their rights and supported to get entitlements. Gender matters should include training of conflict mediators and local land ad-ministration committee members.

Creative and flexible systems to provide equality must be practiced as problems of inequality be-tween genders can be deep rooted.

8 UN-Habitat (2007), Handbook on post-conflict land administration and peace building from emergency to reconstruction, series 1: countries with land records, UN-Habitat: Nairobi


ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION AND SECURING ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCESPoorly-managed resources such as water, food, or fuel threaten livelihood strategies and can gener-ate conflicts. Sustainable resource management in pre-conflict urban planning is important for risk-re-duction. Environmental damage after a conflict such as debris, toxics and landmines is harmful for land-related employment which is usually dominat-ed by women. It is important to assess the environ-mental damage in post-conflict scenarios and link debris management and environmental remedia-tion with settlement planning activities.

Environmental management that is linked with settlement planning can promote sustainable development; economic growth; build peace; mitigate disasters and secure livelihoods and resource availability. Settlement planning can support natural resource management through protected areas and land-use agreements. Sus-tainable resource management is crucial for the life of communities and eases women’s burdens as they are often responsible for resource man-agement in communities.

BOX 8: MITIGATION AND CRISIS PREPAREDNESS

Crisis planning should not only be post-conflict planning. The first step in crisis planning should include building resilience in human settlements and preparing for possible future crisis with coordination structures and networks; maps that can survive the possible disasters without getting destroyed and legislation and preparedness plans that help to support response, recovery and reconstruction efforts in a possible crisis situation. Crisis mitigation should not only consider physical hazards but also social, political, economic, and cultural settings. Conflict prevention and mitigation at the community level should include identification of vulnerabilities of women, men, girls and boys. Imbalances on the community level that should be acted upon in time might include restricted access of certain groups to resources, information, decision-making and employment as well as violence against certain groups.


BOX 10: NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF FORCED EVICTIONS

• Women at risk for insecurity/violence

• Deeper poverty and discrimination

• Damage to property and assets of already vulnerable people

• Disruption of social networks and livelihood strategies

• Access to facilities and services made complicated

• Increased homelessness

• Social exclusion

• Loss of social benefits such as pension or unemployment money due to lack of permanent address

• Personal trauma/negative psychological effects due to fear of possibly being evicted

BOX 9: GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ

The Reconstruction Plan of Iraq highlights the strategy of integrating gender equity in areas such as urban planning, housing and local governance. UN-Habitat has as a goal in Iraq to influence the government to include the needs of vulnerable groups such as women in national and local housing policies and promote gender-focused urban poverty reduction policies.

Security in Iraqi cities has been traditionally weak and there have been frequent incidents of crime and gender violence. Post-conflict urban planning in Iraq has improving security and safety of the urban areas as one of its aims. Urban planning did not widely exist in Iraq before the conflict and, where it did, it has always been a top-down process. There are plans to change this approach through a strong policy framework that supports equal spatial planning interventions at the municipal level.

Gender-differentiated needs should be taken into account through the equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes. UN-Habitat has supported the Ministry of Construction and Housing in the preparation of the National Housing Policy, and the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in the preparation of a strategy to address long-term housing needs of people affected by displacement. Both were prepared through the significant participation of women and have specific emphasis on vulnerable and economically deprived women. UN-Habitat is supporting the implementation of these policies through various projects in informal settlements and internally displaced persons camps in Baghdad and Erbil.


BOX 11: ROLE OF WOMEN IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS’ UPGRADING IN ERBIL, IRAQ

Settlement planning and decision making is traditionally a centralized process in Iraq. Communities have long been unempowered and their participation is rare. Additionally, the role and position of women in Iraq has been weak.

UN-Habitat has started participation processes in the informal settlements of Erbil and involved women in settlement planning activities in a way that has not threatened men. UN-Habitat has established Housing facilitation units operating and employing women within the informal settlements. The units have an ‘open door policy’ that allows residents to drop in to discuss neighborhood needs and engage in the planning process. In the context of Erbil, specific focus-groups for women or women’s grassroots groups would have pushed the traditional gender roles too much and too fast and could have put women at risk. Through the units, unskilled women from within the community have been involved as facilitators of community participation, undertaking house-to-house surveys and needs assessments.

During the day time, when men are often not at home, the units have been able to access houses. In the absence of men, women in the communities have been able to share with UN-Habitat facilitators their real social and housing situation in clear and honest terms. As a side product of the information gathering and planning, local women have learned skills in computer programs such as Excel and AutoCAD. The activities of UN-Habitat in Erbil are a good example of involving women in settlement planning activities in a way that is suitable for the specific cultural context, does not threaten men or put women in a vulnerable position.

BOX 12: MEDIATING AND SECURING WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS IN EASTERN DRC

In the North Kivu area in Eastern DRC, as in many other post-conflict areas, women do not traditionally have titles for land. They have thus been left in vulnerable positions when their husbands, brothers, or other relatives have fled the country or been killed in the conflict. Sixty per cent of the IDP households following the conflict in the country have been female-headed and they have faced major constraints of return to their places of origin due to land ownership issues and threats of violence by armed groups who have been occupying the territories during the long absence of communities. UN-Habitat has developed a land mediation programme in the North Kivu area that aims to protect the land rights of women by giving them appropriate assistance in the absence of an effective governmental land administration agency.

Community land mediation centers have been set up in various communities to build capacity on land and property, raise awareness on equal access to land and to accompany contending parties in case of land disputes. In 2011, more than 750 women were assisted by UN-Habitat through mediation to recover their land rights upon return in their areas of origin. Through using alternative mechanisms such as land inventory and participatory approaches, land has been allocated to women based on consensus among traditional authorities, community members and provincial authorities despite the customary law practices that traditionally do not allow women’s land ownership. In Hewa Bora and Luhonga, 293 women were, at the time of writing this report, involved in the process of land inventory with UN-Habitat.

CHAPTER 5: TOOLS FOR GENDER RESPONSIBLE POSTCONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING 27

Post-conflict settlement planning can use similar tools as regular planning, adjusted to the specif-ic circumstances (Box 13). Additionally, some of the humanitarian response tools are relevant for planning. It is important to think about the dif-ferent groups of people when making planning decisions. Consultation of people is important and tools to do so are prioritized in the chap-ter. Hence, communities should be included in decision-making and actively participate in the planning process rather than just articulating themselves through consultation. This chapter highlights some of the post-conflict planning tools that can help to strengthen women’s roles, safety and wellbeing in human settlements.

ASSESSMENTSSeveral assessments can support settlement planning in post-conflict situations (Figure 6). An initial rapid assessment is done in the immedi-

05ate beginning of the humanitarian operation to understand the overall situation of the affected area; define the humanitarian strategy; establish goals and mobilize resources. A damage assess-ment, following the initial rapid assessment is used to understand the overall scope and nature of the damage. The post-conflict needs assess-ment helps to understand the different effects of the crisis on men and women, the community’s customs and culture and the power relations be-tween genders.

Initial rapid assessments, damage assessments and needs assessments are usually conducted by the humanitarian actors but they give significant

TOOLS FOR GENDER RESPONSIBLE POSTCONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING

Photo: Participatory Planning in Nepal

© UN-Habitat


Consultations and

interviews

Legal and institutional

analysis

Full scale incremental

implementation of spatial plans

Pilot projects and scaling up from the

pilot projects

Training of communities,

authorities and planners

Enumerations and

projections

Spatial analysis

Concerns, risks, needs, interests, opportunities, threaths, problems, visions

Women included in planning through grassroot organizations

Surveys and statistical records

Sex dissaggregated data

Context specific planning decisions made participatory

Spatial plans at national, regional, city-wide, sub-centre and community level coordinated with each other

Information sharing between planners/organizations/community members and local to local dialogue

Trageted actions for women when needed

Focus-group discussions

FIGURE 6: GENDER SENSITIVE POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING PROCESS.



input to the launch of the post-crisis planning process. The needs of internally displaced peo-ple or/and refugees, information about people’s post-conflict displacement locations and the pos-sibility of people returning to their pre-conflict housing sites should be assessed and suitable land for emergency shelter and permanent con-struction allocated for all those affected.

Assessment tools to support post-conflict plan-ning:

• Consultations with communities, individuals, institutions, agencies, local authorities and tra-ditional leaders

• Field visits

• Examination of aerial photos, satellite photos and Google Earth images

• Research of pre-crisis databases and studies

Socio-economic and socio-demographic condi-tions, risks, threats and possibilities of the pop-ulations of a planned area affect the land-use and type of construction to be implemented. These conditions change, often radically, in post-conflict societies. Community-level assess-ments facilitated through gender equality stan-dards should be supported, including face-to- face interviews and consultations by male and female professionals who have gender expertise and represent different sectors.

Women’s organizations/networks and female leaders should be involved in the process in order to reach the affected women better, including the most vulnerable.

The number of women-headed households of-ten increases in post-conflict which increases the work burden of women as sole income gener-ators. Additionally, caring for large numbers of orphans and disabled people take women away from income generation. There should be assess-ments of access to employment and locations of working places that enable the combining of

different roles of women. The structure of the local economy should be assessed, including ma-jor sources of income, economic capabilities and different types of employment of both genders. Major social and economic problems, activities and opportunities prior to the conflict should be identified and the changes in livelihood patterns due to the conflict assessed.

GENDER MAINSTREAMED INFORMATION AND DATAIn the beginning of post-conflict planning pro-cess, existing information and relevant sex-disag-gregated data that can be recovered should be gathered in addition to the post-conflict assess-ments made including:

• Official pre-crisis land data

• Relevant regulations and building codes

• Demographic, socio-economic and sociocultur-al data/records

• Pre-crisis planning documents and urban plans (should be verified in the field, as they are of-ten outdated)

• Pre-crisis satellite images, photos and aerial images

• People’s documents and other evidence to prove land rights

• Information on customary and other undocu-mented land rights based on community con-sensus (the international community should not be solely focusing on title documents in the contexts where titles have never really been an issue)

• Income and employment structures in pre- and post-conflict

• Data on access to housing, land and property

• Data on participation/decision-making possibil-ities of both men and women


• Information related to the total number of households and family members including children; number of single, female-, male- and child-headed households; elderly people; disabled and chronically ill people and house-hold characteristics such as age and sex of the household members

• Migration and displacement patterns

• Marginalized groups and poor people in the specific planning area

• Possible presence of international, national, and local organizations, including women’s and youth groups

The gathered data should be sex-disaggregated and show the different current and future needs and positive and negative matters affecting both women and men in communities. Gender analy-sis is a relevant tool to support post-conflict plan-ning (Box 14). Pre-crisis statistical data can be used but it might be outdated, destroyed or hard to get hold of as institutions in post-conflict sit-uations might be difficult co-operation partners or just be overwhelmed by competing priorities. The breakdown of infrastructure presents extra obstacles.

Data gathering should not be seen purely as col-lecting quantitative data. People can assess for themselves the priorities, needs and matters that make them feel safe or unsafe. Participation in information gathering might be easiest at the community level through community organiza-tions, sometimes with the help of researches. Information and data should be distributed be-tween agencies and other actors to avoid over-lapping activities and the wasting of resources. Affected men and women should be informed of all achievements. Meetings, public announce-ments, bulletin boards, newspapers, television, internet and radio can be used for information sharing. It is important to remember that partic-ipation of people should be more than just con-sultation and information sharing.

STREET AND HOUSEHOLD SURVEYSStreet surveys are taking place in public areas where planning interventions are scheduled to take place and conducted through using pre-de-cided questions on a fixed format questionnaire that includes information about needs, priorities, opportunities, threats, problems and risks in a community. The questions are asked of a large sample of women and men, including all age groups and ethnic groups.

Surveys should be designed to take approxi-mately ten minutes and should be conducted at different times of the day, including after dark. Surveys should be designed and facilitated by professionals with specific expertise. Street sur-veys do not give in-depth knowledge of needs or concerns and may not reach vulnerable groups, yet household surveys that take place in the homes of the respondents can better reach certain populations. A map to define the sam-ple area and, in case of a household survey, the households to be interviewed, should be used.

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS (FGDs) AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWSGroup discussion can be an effective tool to find solutions to specific issues and address matters related to women´s safety. Different kinds of women and men from different age, social and economic groups should be included. It might be good to involve people from similar backgrounds in the same group and thus have several groups in order to gather different ideas.

When targeting women with the FDGs the fa-cilitator should be a woman. She needs to be knowledgeable on the subject, to give space to different individuals with diverse views and keep the discussion on track. People should be in-formed about how the information will be used. The meeting should be documented by using a map of the discussed area where issues and op-portunities can be placed, by taking notes and making recordings. The meetings usually last from 1.5 to 2 hours.


In-depth interviews of specific groups or individ-uals can be a good tool to gather detailed infor-mation of specific issues and matters concerning women´s safety and well-being in communities. Interviewers should be trained females. Safety of both the facilitators of FGDs and in-depth inter-views and the participants should be assured as some men can feel challenged by measures aim-ing to improve women´s position in communities.

WOMEN’S SAFETY AUDIT TOOLThe Women’s Safety Audit Tool helps women to identify characteristics that affect their sense of safety in a specific area. It is usually facilitated by a participatory walking tour through a specific area with different groups of women (including margin-alized and vulnerable groups) who often use the areas. During the walk matters affecting safety and areas causing fear are noted on a map (Box 15).

Matters to be considered:

• Lighting• Condition of pedestrian ways• Signage• Maintenance of the public spaces and utilities• Locations of public services such as toilets• Access to help in case of an emergency• Police presence• Informal surveillance such as shops and restau-

rants• Visibility• Isolation• Escape routes

• Information on numbers of men and women using the area

During the safety walk having local authorities, service providers, media or police in place can be beneficial. It is important to conduct walks both during the day and the night time (where possi-ble) to understand the time specific threats and risks. The safety audit should be finished by a fi-nal discussion with the participants.

The results of the safety audit can help deci-sion-makers to understand women’s concerns and help to plan, rebuild and manage safety bottlenecks in the public space. Safety audits can also familiarize communities with the infra-structure and service provision and to empower women as active members of the planning pro-cess in gathering information and co-operating with local authorities.

LOCAL TO LOCAL DIALOGUELocal-to-local dialogues help women’s organiza-tions to negotiate with authorities about devel-opment plans of their living areas and thus in-fluence decisions made. Local-to-local dialogues can empower women to see themselves as active members of the community and build their ca-pacities in negotiation with authorities.

If successful, the local-to-local dialogues can re-sult in changes towards sustainability and equity and long-term partnerships between authorities and women’s groups.

BOX 13: POST-CONFLICT PLANNING PROCESS

The post-conflict planning process starts in the emergency phase with putting together coordination structures and common principles, managing debris (especially clearing debris from access routes) and buildings that are important for humanitarian response, understanding the overall situation through different assessments and observations and identifying planning areas. Most of the planning takes place in the early recovery phase. The different scales – national reconstruction plans, regional plans, city-wide plans, sub-centre plans and community planning at the neighbourhood level – are used according to the context and scope of the crisis. Plans should be made simultaneously on all the planning scales, coordinated with each other and implemented as soon as possible. People are encouraged to return to their housing sites and community-based planning is initiated. Municipalities are supported and planning at larger scales is initiated. In the reconstruction phase, planning and implementation continue at all city levels. Long-term risk reduction, capacity building and training also take place. Implementation and refinement of the plans is practised through a segmented approach.


BOX 14: GENDER ANALYSIS

Gender analysis aims to understand specific needs, priorities and coping mechanisms of women, men, girls and boys. Sex-disaggregated data should be used to conduct gender analysis. Gender analysis is crucial for development, resource allocation and implementation of inclusive, equal and sustainable urban plans and community plans. If gender aspects are absent from assessments they will not be considered in settlement planning and the consequent reconstruction. Issues of employment, infrastructure, housing and services of both genders can be analysed in spatial dimension and their access to decision making assessed. Gender analysis should be incorporated into all post-conflict early assessments, tools, processes and settlement plans/policies. It is important to identify funding mechanisms and resource mobilization to support women’s equal participation in settlement planning.

BOX 15: WOMEN’S SAFETY AUDIT PROCESS

The safety audit process starts with a situation analysis and interviews with service providers. Infrastructure and services such as water points, toilet complexes, drains and power supply are mapped. Focus group discussions/in-depth interviews with community women/girls support the preparation. The teams conducting safety walks have between three and seven people and the walk and the final discussion takes approximately three hours in total. Training of the participants is facilitated, routes for the walks are defined and maps/other supporting material as well as information of policies/programmes/policy makers that can support the process are gathered before the walk starts.

During the walk observations are made, using a pre-designed checklist, and marked on a base map. Specific issues are documented by photographs or small sketches.

During the final discussion results are gathered, findings discussed and a rapid action plan developed that addresses planning/governance issues and proposed usage of space that decreases risks. The recommendations and action plan should be presented to the authorities/other decision-makers and distributed to stakeholders and the wider public.

ANALYSING THE EXISTING CITY STRUCTURES AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURESThe city existed prior to the crisis and does not need to be planned from scratch. The old city structure should be the basis for planning but sustainability, density, resilience, inclusiveness, pleasantness and functionality can be added by rebuilding. Old urban problems that risk becom-ing serious bottlenecks are to be identified in the post-conflict situations and ways to solve the problems should be found.

Observations should be done on site with commu-nity members including both men and women. The

following need to be analysed both on city-wide and community level in a gender sensitive way:

• Any damage that has occurred• Natural elements such as hills, rivers and the

sea for land use and risks for natural disasters• Administrative elements and boundaries• Access routes and links• Key urban elements such as important official

buildings, markets, transportation stations and parks

• Thematic categories such as infrastructure routes, commercial/industrial areas and formal/informal residential areas, education, tourism, parks, public facilities, open spaces


• Characteristics such as topography, greenery and typologies of buildings

• Possibilities for land readjustment and building more densely

• Level of pre-crisis disaster resilience and its bot-tlenecks

• Functions that support safety/security such as health, social, legal and governmental instances

RAPID ANALYSIS OF LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITIES AND LEGAL REFORMIn post-conflict situations, the capacities of the authorities are often weakened at all levels - lo-cal, city, regional and national - and they are high-ly politicized and this makes democratic actions challenging. It is important to make an honest assessment of the governance capacity and insti-tutional gaps after a crisis. Capacity building and peaceful coexistence of different groups in na-tional/local governments ensure national owner-ship, implementation and sustainable and equal future practice. Sometimes, a new implementing body may be needed.

Gender-sensitive planning should be supported by appropriate enabling laws, regulations and poli-cies but national laws/local regulatory systems do not always recognize the rights of women. There are several internationally accepted policies, Unit-ed Nations resolutions, world conferences and declarations that support women’s protection/po-sition in post-conflict (Box 16). In some post-con-flict countries international law can be used by the international community to support the facili-tation of certain interventions if the national laws have gaps in these areas.

Legal reforms and renewed or strengthened pol-icies at the national level are necessary in some post-conflict contexts. When reforming policies and laws the effects should be analyzed through consulting both genders. Laws or policies that enable women’s participation in decision-mak-ing/ implementation of settlement planning and prevent gender-based violence through building safety are crucial.

Both women’s and men’s economic, social, politi-cal and cultural rights should be protected through national laws and ensured in reconstruction work. Reforms in legislation concerning inheritance or marital property are important in order to protect a women’s position when her husband dies.

Legal reform is a lengthy and politically compli-cated process and often there is no time to wait for this when reconstructing a society. However, it is important to support national legal reform processes in the long run with a consideration that laws are not enough alone - they need to be implemented in the field.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING AT DIFFERENT PLANNING SCALESPost-conflict planning should be undertaken comprehensively, be well-coordinated and de-livered simultaneously at all levels: national, re-gional, city-wide, sub-centre and local. In the post-crisis context, plans are more schematic and implementation-oriented than in the normal planning situation. However, it is important to plan for every level to understand the interrela-tion of decisions. The plans should later be incre-mentally refined to reflect the reality in the field.

National Reconstruction PlanA national reconstruction plan is a scheduled national strategic plan guiding the overall re-construction of a country. The national recon-struction plan integrates socio-economic and physical matters showing guidelines on land use and infrastructure down to the district level and presenting relevant documents and investment plans related to reconstruction.

Gender mainstreaming should be assured in the nationwide strategic planning as it feeds into all the projects done at the more detailed planning scales. A national reconstruction plan is linked to the political and legal systems of the respective country. It presents the ‘next step’ of a region or country and it can thus be useful to look at de-velopment patterns globally and regionally when drafting the national reconstruction plan.


Regional PlanA regional plan takes into account the relation-ships among different cities together with ru-ral and peri-urban areas. Mega-regional plans address matters concerning large metropolitan areas or mega-regions. The regional plan shows things such as development possibilities, place-ment of land-use activities, infrastructure and settlement growth resulting from the influx of people to cities after a crisis. Secondary city development after a crisis, region-wide environ-mental, social, and economic issues, polycentric needs and relationships between cities can be shown in regional plans. Gender mainstreaming should be addressed in the regional plan as it addresses the future regional development and thus impacts upon the citywide and local scales.

City-Wide PlansPlanning at the city scale addresses matters such as access roads, transportation/mobility networks and other development lines such as future expansion zones; green areas; city-wide services; land-use; areas for industry, business and housing and building codes/restrictions link-ing community and sub-centre plans. City-wide planning should be integrated physical, envi-ronmental, and economic planning addressed through gender-mainstreaming.

It is important to look at the access links to rural/peri-urban areas and assess the different hierar-

chies of roads inside the city. The possibilities for land readjustment, renovation, selective demo-lition and commercial development should be shown and methods for increasing safety, den-sity, inclusiveness, and sustainability sought and natural resources protected.

Historical matters and, social, economic and service networks should be addressed. It is im-portant to protect heritage and other historical buildings and traditional community structures of different groups along with the social dynam-ics of different communities.

Residential areas and facilities should be locat-ed equally between all groups and with con-sideration for the needs of both genders. The post-conflict influx of people in the cities should be taken into account by adding density and ser-vicing expansion zones.

Sub-Centre PlansCommunity plans should drive sub-centre recon-struction plans which should be balanced with higher-level ones that have infrastructure/service links to the city/region. Local authorities should be engaged in sub-centre-level planning to en-sure the implementation of the plans.

Plans at the sub-centre level should be gen-der-mainstreamed and address the following issues: selective demolition; protection of heri-

BOX 16: POLICY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT

Three levels of international law support women’s protection during conflicts and in post-conflict: international human rights, humanitarian law and refugee law. International laws are negotiated by different states but require minimum standards of rights of all individuals. They are voluntarily accepted by the different participating countries and oblige states to respect, protect and fulfil human rights through national laws and policies.

The internationally accepted policies, UN resolutions, world conferences and declarations and international laws that recognize gender mainstreaming and women´s empowerment are further explained in the Appendix. They promote equal rights, civil and political freedom and self-determination of all the members of the human family without discrimination. States are encouraged to take necessary actions during crisis situations to protect any group of people. In post-conflict settings all people should have freedom from fear to freely practice economic, social and cultural activities with equal rights.


tage sites/ other buildings from all sides of the conflict; formal/informal settlements; mixed and compact land-use for residential, recreational, livelihoods and business activities with links to public services and infrastructure, among oth-ers; building codes/restrictions; densities; mixed housing typologies; greenery and the legal status of sites. Employment opportunities for women and men should be planned and local economic development promoted, including informal busi-nesses. Efficient access linkages connecting the communities with their surroundings should be addressed through a good hierarchy of roads. Planning for the upgrading of public spaces can prevent crime and violence. Past practices should be rethought and disaster risk reduction sought.

Community PlanningCommunity-based planning that is linked with local governance is a crucial tool as only the im-plementation of laws, policies and reconstruction plans will increase women’s position in commu-nities. Community settlement planning should be participatory wherever possible and supervised by a professional. Women and men from differ-ent age and social groups should be included and plans should be implemented as soon as possible. Priority areas should include housing typologies, access, infrastructure and services (Box 17).

Pilot projects and scaling up from them is crucial for presenting sustainable, disaster-resistant con-struction and equal, gender-sensitive communi-ty settlement patterns. Tenure measures should be addressed to provide long-term settlement solutions. Social and economic matters such as family connections, livelihoods of both genders and affordable housing should be considered. Social inclusion, local identity, a good living en-vironment and environmental matters should be taken into consideration.

From the start, efforts should strive for perma-nent solutions. The situation before the disaster event should be used as a basis for planning and bottlenecks need to be re-planned. Land read-justment methods can be used to accommodate informal dwellers and to enable changes. Par-ticipatory post-conflict settlement planning and reconstruction can be utilized as a builder of so-cial capital and peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and tribal groups if the whole community is involved. Bottom-up interventions at the local scale may input to top-down peace-making ef-forts. It is important to activate women’s grass-roots groups at the local level to influence urban planners to use gender- sensitive strategies.

BOX 17: COMMUNITY LEVEL PLANNING

It is important to empower all community members to be active members of the planning process. People should be involved during the whole planning process through instances, such as community grassroots organizations under the supervision of professional planners/architects, to:

• Conduct needs assessments

• Analyze bottlenecks of the community structure and its safety

• Evaluate safety of buildings

• Plan small planning interventions such as relocating functions, reusing spaces for public spaces, disaster mitigation, greenery and designing small access corridors and bridges

• Repair damaged houses

• Reconstruct their own houses

• Conduct monitoring and evaluation of planning and implementation


TARGETED INITIATIVES FOR WOMENTargeted actions are sometimes needed to re-solve bottlenecks concerning women´s safety and well-being in community settlements. This can mean actions such as replanning specific public areas that have been reported to be a seri-ous risk for violence; planning places for women inside settlements where they are safe from risks to gender-based violence or ensuring access of female-headed households to building materials during housing reconstruction.

It is important to identify social patterns, practic-es, laws and institutions in the specific context that decrease or increase women´s equal rights to civil, cultural, economic, political and social activities in a society. How these matters affect the spatial layout of a community and how in-dividuals, communities, local/ national authori-ties, NGOs and international agencies can take actions to resolve problems of inequality in the settlement patterns by using different policies, programmes and settlement planning actions should be analyzed using participatory methods.

TRAINING OF AUTHORITIES AND LOCAL PLANNERSEarly transfer of responsibilities from interna-tional actors to local or national authorities and professionals is of high importance. Training and building the capacity of authorities, communities and local planners on resilient, inclusive and sus-tainable post-conflict settlement planning that takes into account the perspectives of both gen-ders will give a better basis for sustainable future development. It is important to ensure that men and women benefit equally from training and ca-pacity building.

The capacity of the leadership is important. In many countries, the problem is not the lack of professional settlement planning but the lack of motivation, resources and skills among the lead-ers to realize plans and building codes and use gender mainstreaming. Building the capacity of

local authorities may be the most efficient way to promote gender mainstreaming and ensure that the reconstruction plans are implemented.

All different stakeholders possibly including lo-cal and international national authorities, local settlement planners and local and internation-al humanitarian/development actors should be trained in gathering gender-disaggregated data, conducting consultations with both genders and settlement planning that takes both women and men into account. There should be training on how to include women in community action planning and other decision making methods; how to provide information to both genders on the planning process and different rights and re-sponsibilities; how to enhance security through planning; and what kind of settlement strategies tend to answer both women’s and men’s needs.

Members of local communities, both women and men, should be trained in sustainable and disas-ter-resilient construction techniques. The capacity of women’s networks/grassroots organizations, institutions and municipal gender officers should be built in gender perspectives in settlement plan-ning and housing reconstruction.

Training can be provided by workshops, on-the- job and by learning from pilot projects such as gender sensitive community reconstruction plans that are implemented in the field. Training should be started as soon as possible in the early recov-ery phase when most of the decisions according to post-conflict settlement planning take place. Wider-scale training should take place in the re-construction phase and not when projects have already been implemented. It has to be ensured that training materials are gender-disaggregated, culturally suitable and understood by the target audience. It is often effective to use both a fe-male and a male facilitator for a training session.

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 37

There is an inter-relationship between gen-der-sensitive post-conflict settlement planning and long-term peace of communities and na-tions. Post-conflict settlement planning process is a major opportunity to increase women’s em-powerment and participation in decision-making processes. It is a major chance to adapt the set-tlements to reflect the needs of different groups including the different gender groups. Addition-ally, post-conflict settlement planning is a crucial opportunity to increase the safety of settlements which is especially important for women that face more risks in the public environment than men.

Post-conflict settlement planning should be stra-tegic as well as action- and implementation-ori-ented, aiming at a significant level of re-planning rather than building the settlements exactly as they were before. Post-conflict settlement plan-ning is a unique opportunity to plan away bot-tlenecks; make the living environment more sus-tainable, suitable and safer for both genders; and build more balanced and more inclusive societies.

Post-conflict settlement planning, as any settlement planning, is a complex process. However, women’s

06 CONCLUSION

empowerment and role in post-conflict settlement planning should be actively thought of due to their often disadvantaged position in post-conflict soci-eties. Gender mainstreaming should be included as an integrated part of all planning activities and in the overall post-conflict planning process rather than dealt with as a separate planning sector/ pro-cess to be considered on side.

It is crucial to involve women as human settle-ments cannot become sustainable if the needs and priorities of more than 50 per cent of the population are ignored. Empowerment of wom-en needs, however, to be done in line with the maximum potential of the specific cultural and political context, in a way that does not put women in dangerous positions after the with-drawal of the international community.

Photo: families resettled in somalia

© UN-Habitat

a woman and her child walk past UN

peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic

of Congo, 2012.

© Siegfried Modola/IRIN.

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• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, (1966, entry into force 1976) - The Covenant promotes equal rights, civil and political freedom and self-determination of all the members of the human family without discrimination due to “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” including gender. It states that, during crisis situations, necessary actions should be taken by the states with respect to international law without discriminating any group of people based on characteristics such as gender.

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR (1966, entry into force 1976) - Similarly to the ICCPR this Covenant promotes equal rights, civil and political freedom and self-determination of “all the members of the human family”. It states that all human beings should have freedom from fear and freedom to freely practice economic, social and cultural activities with equal rights.

• The International Humanitarian Law, IHL - This combines the Geneva Conventions (1864-1949) and the Hague Conventions (1899, 1907), including responsibilities and accepted practices of nations and individual engaged in war/armed conflict. It states the responsibilities of neutral nations to treat persons outside conflicts with a humane manner. It also states the rights of civilians during the time of conflict. The law has been signed by 194 parties (2011) which means it refers to almost any armed conflict/war in the world.

• The Refugee Law - This is the UN Convention of the status of refugees. It states rights and responsibilities of individuals and nations related to asylum. It grants refugees exemption from reciprocity, meaning that the refugee should not have similar negative treatment in the receiver country than in the war-affected country and is to be granted an entry to the receiver country due to forced escape from threats upon their life or freedom. The rights of individual refugees are valid for all civilians including men and women, boys and girls. The refugees must immediately present themselves to the authorities but should not be forced to return.

• The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – CEDAW (1979) - This is the most important legal instrument for protecting women’s rights. It was established to support women’s equal position in matters such as “education, employment, health, political participation, equal position in nationality and marriage” and to protect women from abuse.

• The Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action (1995) adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women - The Beijing Conference Declaration concentrates on women’s equality through gender mainstreaming. The declaration considers post-conflict peace and security as important preconditions for socio-economic growth and women’s equality in relation to men. Equality in turn is seen as a crucial factor for sustainable development and democracy. Twelve action areas are identified to promote women’s human rights, including socio-economic matters, protection towards violence and political participation.

APPENDIX

• The United Nations General Assembly Special Session, ‘Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century’, ( ‘Beijing +5’), New York, 5-9 June 2000 - The session was established as a five-year follow-up for the Beijing Declaration and its plan for action and it concentrated on “good practices, positive actions, lessons learned, obstacles and key challenges remaining” according to women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming.

• The ECOSOC agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming gender in all UN entities and programmes - The conclusions of 1997/2 have resulted in development policies by most of the United Nations entities intended at mainstreaming gender equality in all their policies and programmes. The conclusions promote member states to use gender mainstreaming in all their activities and legislations to make both women’s and men’s needs and concerns heard and, ultimately, achieve gender equality.

• The Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2000) - Being the first actual recognition of the roles and experiences of women in the context of armed conflict, the resolution calls the different UN entities, governments, the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General and all parties to armed conflict to protect and empower women in conflict and post-conflict situations.

It emphasizes the importance of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts by supporting participation of women at all levels of decision-making, including prevention, management and resolution of conflicts; as “representatives and envoys of the Secretary-General; as participants in peace negotiations and agreements” and as powerful participants of peace-building and reconstruction.

The resolution calls for supporting women’s grassroots organizations and protecting the human rights of women and girls in conflict/post-conflict through international humanitarian and human rights legal frameworks. Disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration and rehabilitation programmes are encouraged to involve women and address the needs of both women and men.

• The Windhoek Declaration and Namibia Plan of Action on ‘Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multi-Dimensional Peace Support Operations’ (2000) - The declaration calls for women’s participation and gender mainstreaming in peace support operations nationally and internationally. Women and men should be equal partners and beneficiaries in peacekeeping, reconciliation and peace-building as well as in the post-conflict political, economic and social rebuilding of the society. These efforts were addressed with practical measures in ‘The Namibia Plan of Action’ for UN member states to realize and follow up.

• UN Security Council Resolution 1820, (2008) - UN Resolution 1820 is a follow-up to Resolution 1325. Resolution 1820 concentrates on preventing sexual violence in armed conflict/post-conflict contexts, privately and as a weapon of war. It requires member states to take strategic steps to prevent practices of sexual violence in conflict/post-conflict scenarios.

• The UN Security Council Resolution 1888, (2009) - UN resolution 1888 emphasizes the importance of preventing sexual violence in conflict/ post-conflict situations, privately and as a weapon of war. The resolution states its concern that systematic attacks towards civilians can effectively harm restoration of international peace and security and exacerbate conflict situations.


The resolution demands that the member states immediately react to the problem with extensive measures including training, legal and judicial measures and punishing war criminals.

• The UN Security Council Resolution 1899, (2010) - UN Security Council Resolution 1899 states the concern of failing to address the needs and interests of women in post-conflict reconstruction and peace-building, especially in the immediate measures taken, resource allocation and the institutions responsible in post-conflict contexts. Thus, the resolution emphasizes the crucial importance of women’s participation in all political and economic decision-making during all the stages of the peace processes; supporting women’s organizations; ensuring gender mainstreaming; having women in leadership positions and involved in management; and planning and making the general attitudes towards women’s participation more positive.

• The UN Millennium Development Declaration (2000) - The eight Millennium Development Goals were established as a framework for measuring development progress to be reached by 2015 by the United Nations member states. Goal 3 addresses a commitment to support gender equality and empowerment of women by the international community. The Millenium Development Goals encourage gender equality in areas such as education and focuses on poverty reduction which increases women’s possibilities.

• The Johannesburg Declaration and Plan of Action for Sustainable Development (2002) - The Johannesburg World Summit Declaration emphasizes the protection of the environment and socio-economic development. In the declaration, women’s empowerment and gender equity are included in all the matters addressed within Agenda 21, the Millennium Development Goals and the Plan of Implementation of the Summit.


HS Number: HS/012/14E

ISBN Number:(Volume) 978-92-1-132603-1

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME

P.O.Box 30030,Nairobi 00100,Kenya;

Tel: +254-20-7623120;

Fax: +254-20-76234266/7 (Central office)

[email protected]

www.unhabitat.org

Ten principles can be followed to produce the sort of equal post-conflict

settlement planning that can help to build communities that have a better basis of

becoming peaceful and sustainable. These are:

1. Gender factors should be integrated in post-conflict settlement planning

2. Post-conflict settlement planning should increase the safety and security of all

groups

3. Women’s grassroots organizations should be involved in post-conflict

settlement planning

4. A spatial framework should be used to facilitate improvement of gender-

sensitive coordination of post-crisis settlement planning

5. The planning process should be people-centred and include both women and

men

6. Planning should be about building back better and increasing crisis-resilience,

peace and the inclusiveness of all groups

7. Spatial planning should frame interventions as first steps towards socially,

politically and economically equal neighbourhoods and cities

8. Planning should be integrated, linking infrastructure, services and livelihoods

in a way that recognizes both women’s and men’s needs

9. Planning should generate economic recovery and growth if addressed equally

10. Planning should be monitored and evaluated

Documents

IN POST-CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PLANNING...the post-conflict settlement planning process. Groups competing over settlement planning or reconstruction decisions may continue the con-flict